Phonemic awareness IEP goal examples

By the IEP Atlas editorial teamLast updated November 1, 2026

Short answer

A phonemic awareness IEP goal names one sound skill, the word type, how the student responds and a criterion with a denominator. Example: given 10 spoken words with 4 sounds, Mia will blend the sounds into the word in 9 of 10, up from 4 of 10. Move to letters as soon as possible, so the skill feeds reading and spelling.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and work with the single sounds in spoken words: the /k/, /a/ and /t/ in cat. It is the part of phonological awareness that matters most for decoding and spelling. The 12 goals below cover the four core skills: isolating sounds, blending, segmenting and changing sounds, with the last set connecting sounds to letters.

Each goal shows the condition, a baseline, the criterion with a denominator and the measure, with a template link. The numbers are illustrations. For how the skills differ from broader phonological awareness, see phonological awareness vs phonemic awareness. For how to teach them, see the pillar on phonemic awareness interventions.

How to choose a phonemic awareness goal

Probe each skill with 10 spoken words before you choose. Start the goal at the first skill the student cannot do reliably, and plan to move on fast. The What Works Clearinghouse guide for kindergarten to grade 3 recommends building awareness of the sounds in speech and linking them to letters.^[1] The National Reading Panel found that phonemic awareness instruction helped reading more when it used letters and focused on one or two skills at a time.^[2]

What the student does	Sub-skill to target	Measurement method
Cannot say the first sound of "map"	Isolating first, last and middle sounds	Words correct out of 10
Hears "/s/ /u/ /n/" but says "sat" or guesses	Blending phonemes	Words correct out of 10
Says "s-un" instead of "/s/ /u/ /n/"	Segmenting into phonemes	Words fully correct out of 10, or sounds per minute
Segments well but cannot spell what they segment	Mapping sounds to letters	Words mapped correctly out of 10
Decodes CVC words but stalls on blends	Blending and segmenting 4- and 5-sound words	Words correct out of 10
Older student, slow decoding of long words	Advanced manipulation with letters	Items correct on a timed probe

If a student cannot rhyme yet but can isolate first sounds, skip the rhyme goal. Rhyme is not a gate to phoneme work.

Isolating sounds

Given 10 spoken CVC words, Leo will say the first and the last sound in 9 of 10 words on 3 consecutive weekly probes. Baseline: 4 of 10 for last sounds. Measure: item probe. Template.
Given 10 spoken CVC words, Leo will say the middle vowel sound in 8 of 10 words across 3 probes. Baseline: 2 of 10. Template.
Given a target sound and 10 spoken words, Ava will say whether the sound is at the beginning, middle or end in 8 of 10 across 2 consecutive probes. Baseline: 3 of 10. Template.

Weak: "Leo will identify sounds in words." Measurable: Goal 1 above. It names the position, the word type and the count.

Blending sounds into words

Given 10 spoken CVC words said one sound at a time, Mia will blend the sounds and say the word in 9 of 10 on 3 consecutive probes. Baseline: 5 of 10. Template.
Given 10 spoken words with 4 or 5 sounds (such as /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/), Mia will blend them into the word in 9 of 10 across 3 probes. Baseline: 4 of 10. Template.
Given 10 words said one sound at a time and 3 picture choices, Sam will point to or select on his device the word that was blended in 8 of 10 across 3 probes. Baseline: 3 of 10. Template.

Weak: "Mia will blend sounds." Measurable: Goal 2 above. It says how many sounds and how many words.

Goal 3 lets a student who uses AAC or has speech sound errors show blending without saying the word. Accept the response mode the student uses every day.

Segmenting words into sounds

Given 10 spoken CVC and CCVC words, Jonah will push a chip into a sound box for each sound in order in 9 of 10 words across 3 probes. Baseline: 4 of 10. Template.
Given 10 spoken words with initial or final blends (such as "flag," "milk"), Jonah will tap out each sound in 8 of 10 words on 2 consecutive probes. Baseline: 3 of 10, treats the blend as one sound. Template.
On a 1-minute oral segmentation probe of 3- and 4-sound words, Rosa will say 40 correct sounds per minute on 2 of 3 weekly probes. Baseline: 18 correct sounds per minute. Template.

Weak: "Jonah will segment words with 80% accuracy." Measurable: Goal 1 above. "80% accuracy" has no word type or denominator; this goal has both.

Timed segmentation suits students who segment accurately but slowly. Record it as a rate on the rate per minute page.

Changing sounds and connecting to letters

Given 10 spoken words, Theo will say each word without its first sound ("say 'mat' without /m/") in 8 of 10 across 3 probes. Baseline: 2 of 10. Template.
Given 10 spoken CVC words, Theo will change the vowel to make a new word when asked ("change /a/ in 'bat' to /i/") in 8 of 10 on 2 consecutive probes. Baseline: 3 of 10. Template.
Given 10 spoken CVC words, Grace will say each sound and place a matching letter tile for each in 9 of 10 words across 3 probes. Baseline: 4 of 10. Template.

Weak: "Theo will manipulate phonemes." Measurable: Goal 2 above. It names the manipulation, the word type and the criterion.

Goal 3 is where phonemic awareness meets phonics. Once the student can map sounds to tiles, most teams fold the remaining sound work into phonics and spelling goals. See phonics IEP goals examples for the next step.

How to measure phonemic awareness goals

10-item probes: say each word once, in a steady voice, with no mouth cues that give away the sound. Score each word right or wrong and record on the opportunity trial data sheet.
New words each probe: draw from a large word pool at the same level so the student cannot memorize.
Timed probes: for segmenting and blending fluency, count correct sounds or words in 1 minute.
Response mode: speaking, tapping, pointing or a device all count. Write the mode into the goal.

Probe weekly for most phonemic awareness goals. They are taught for a short time, so a weekly graph shows quickly whether to move on.^[3] The phonemic awareness glossary entry has a short definition for families.

Short-term objectives for phonemic awareness goals

Step up word length or skill difficulty. For the blending goal: by the first report, 9 of 10 two-sound words; by the second, 9 of 10 CVC words; by the third, 9 of 10 words with 4 sounds. For the mapping goal, move from CVC words to words with digraphs, where there are fewer sounds than letters. The short-term objectives guide has the format.

Adapting by grade and need

Grade or need	Typical focus	Example change
Preschool	Syllables, first sounds	Clap syllables in names; sort pictures by first sound
Kindergarten	Isolating, blending and segmenting CVC words	Sound boxes with chips, then letters
Grades 1 to 2	Blends, vowel changes, mapping to letters	Letter tiles for 4- and 5-sound words
Grades 3 to 5	Manipulation for students still decoding	Change sounds in written word chains
Middle and high school	Long words, with letters always	Segment syllables, then sounds, then spell
AAC users or speech sound errors	Receptive response formats	Point to the blended word from 3 pictures

Templates by grade are on the phonological awareness goals page, and students with dyslexia often need these goals alongside decoding; see IEP goals for dyslexia. The phonological awareness glossary entry explains the wider skill set. Run any draft through the goal checker.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good phonemic awareness IEP goal?

One that names a single skill, the word type and a criterion with a denominator. For example: given 10 spoken words with 4 sounds, the student will blend the sounds into the word in 9 of 10 on 3 consecutive weekly probes.

Should phonemic awareness goals be oral only?

Start orally if the student needs it, then add letters as soon as possible. Goals that connect sounds to letter tiles move the skill into reading and spelling, which is the reason to teach it.

How often should phonemic awareness goals be probed?

Weekly, with 10 new words or a 1-minute timed probe. These skills can change quickly with daily practice, so frequent probes show when the student is ready for the next skill.

Use it in IEP Atlas

Sources

Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Progress Monitoring: Data & Goal Setting, National Center on Intensive Intervention

Written and checked by the IEP Atlas editorial team under our editorial policy. This guide describes general practice and federal rules. It is not legal advice; your state may add requirements, and the IEP team makes the decisions for each student.